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Jobs and growth are top of Treasurer Scott Morrison’s priorities when he delivers the 2016 Federal Budget on May 3.

There have already been some reveals on what Australians can expect in relation to changes for company tax rates and superannuation as well as funding for infrastructure and transport.

StartupAUS CEO, Alex McCauley, said the Federal Government’s focus on building momentum in the Australian technology startup ecosystem has been positive, and he would like to see it continue through the budget and into the election platforms for both major political parties.

StartupAUS would also like to see a boost in R&D in Australia through better targeting the R&D Tax Incentive to help drive genuine startup innovation.

McCauley said Fintech startups would also greatly benefit from a reduction in red tape.

“The startup community is looking for bold measures to better support our growing fintech sector,” he said.

ADMA CEO, Jodie Sangster, said there has been plenty of talk about driving innovation, STEM education and the ideas boom, but there haven’t been any initiatives by the Government to develop tangible digital and data skills.

“These skills are critical to ensuring we have a workforce that is able to deliver on the requirements of the digital future and fill these critical job roles,” Sangster said. “Without such training, opportunities will pass and leave Australia lagging on the global stage.”

HubOne CEO and founder, Nick Beaugeard, would also like to see the government's continued support of the tech startup community and innovation agenda.

"It needs continue with that vein that small organisations in the tech community have access to capital and are able to grow as they need to," Beaugeard said. "I would love see something put in place where larger organisations pay us smaller organisations in a more timely manner and I think that would have a massive positive impact on the Australian economy. There are certain large organisations in Australia that have difficult terms for the smaller provider, and we're talking over 60 days."

The Beanstalk Factory CEO, Peter Bradd, said it was important to acknowledge the significance of the current financial investments being made and the level of support provided - not only at a Federal level but by State Governments across Australia.

“Innovation is critical to our economic future and when we support startups, there’s something in it for everyone – more jobs, a growing economy, and insurance against global disruption,” Bradd said. “However innovation is much broader than startups even though they may be winning the mindshare of that conversation right now.”

MYOB recently revealed the results of its Business Monitor survey, which involved more than 1000 business owners. It discovered 60 per cent of respondents believe a tax reduction will allow Australia’s business environment to stay competitive.

Other key findings revealed that 37 per cent of business owners agree that the tax system is fair versus unfair (32 per cent) and the majority (52 per cent) deemed taxation as the most important area of government regulation that needs to be simplified, followed by health and safety.

MYOB chief executive, Tim Reed, said the results reflect that the government could be doing a lot more to reduce the day-to-day burdens of managing current business tax regulations.

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